It's safe to say that the Boonville Pirates basketball team had its chances late in Friday night's ballgame against the Marshall Owls.

After trailing by as much as seven early in the fourth quarter, the Pirates rallied back with a 8-0 run during a two-minute stretch to go up 49-47 with 55 seconds left. But what happened after that is anybodys guess as Marshall came back with a steal and a layup to tie the game at 49-all. Then, after senior Damario Walker hit 1 of 2 foul shots to put the Pirates on top by one at 50-49, Boonville had another chance to add to its lead on a wide-open shot only to come away empty. In the meantime, the Owls rallied back to tie the game at 50-all and then sank 2 of 2 free throws with 2.5 seconds left to go up 52-50.

But even then there was still an outside chance as Boonville called back-to-back timeouts set up one last play. However, after in-bounds pass to Walker, the senior standout threw up a desperation shot at mid-court only to miss its mark to end the game.

While the 52-50 loss dropped Boonville to 12-10 overall and 6-4 in the NCMC, head coach Scott Floyd said his team fought adversity all night.

"I was proud of how we came back and grabbed the lead after being down seven points with about 4:00 to go," Floyd said. "Once again, our defense was pretty good tonight. We let Marshall off the hook in the first half as we were unable at times to catch up with their shooters in transition. Marshall hit six three-point buckets in the first half to gain a good cushion.

"We also had trouble at times rebounding the ball as Marshall hit the offensive glass with consistency. Another problem was the fact that we could only connect on 6 of 14 free throws on the night. We are usually pretty consistent from the line in clutch time, but tonight we found it difficult to hit free throws in the last four minutes of the game. We hit only 5 of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter."

Of course it didn't help that Marshall came out and reeled off nine straight points during a two-minute stretch to go up 12-4 early in the first quarter. However, after settling down somewhat on the offensive end, the Pirates still managed to make a game of it while trailing by just four (16-12) after first period's end.

The second quarter was a little better for the Pirates. Although Marshall still outscored Boonville 12-11 in the period to lead at the half 28-23, the Pirates showed signs of life offensively by reeling off 11 straight points in a span of three minutes to go up by one at 23-22 with 1:53 left.

But even that was short-lived as Marshall came back with a basket from Ben Valencia and a three from Zach Glassmaker to lead by five at the break.

Page 2 of 3 - Neither team did much offensively in the third quarter while combining for 12 points. The only difference is that Marshall led 34-29 with one quarter to play.

Meanwhile, in the final period, the Pirates trailed by as much as seven on two different occasions before rallying back with a 8-0 run to go up two at 49-47. Marshall then had a little luck go its way as Boonville missed several free throws down the stretch along with a point-blank shot to rally back for the victory.

Connor Cooley had 16 points and Zach Glassmaker 10 for Marshall.

For Boonville, Jay Barnhart finished the game with 15 points and five rebounds. Damario Walker added 13 points, three rebounds and two assists while Tyler Peterson chipped in 10 points, four rebounds and one steal, JT Washington with six points and nine rebounds, Gus Kemp with four points, two rebounds, two steals and one assist, Tavious Brazil with four rebounds and Gauge Sharp with one steal.

The Pirates also finished the game hitting 20 of 51 shots from the field for 39 percent and 6 of 14 from the foul line for 43 percent. Marshall, meanwhile, hit on 8 of 12 shots from the line for 67 percent.

In the JV game, Boonville raced out to a 22-6 first-quarter lead against the Owls and never looked back for a convincing 62-31 victory.

The Pirates, 10-5 overall and 5-4 in the NCMC, opened the first half with a 34-17 lead against Marshall and then outscored the Owls 28-14 in the second half.

Boonville JV coach Kent Peterson said it was nice for the kids to get their 10th win of the season.

"We played well as a collective group," Peterson said. "I was proud of Jady Reese, who had four points and five rebounds. Dalton Hodge had five points, Christian Burns hit a nice three-point shot and Conner Pond played really hard, he just couldn't get the ball in the basket but still had five rebounds. Clayton Lang continues to play great for us. He had 18 points on 4-9 shooting from the three-point line and Dre Lewis had 15-points while Bryce Fuemmeler attacked the basket and hit a couple of nice left hand runners. Marshall has a lot of kids developing and I was proud of our kids for working on the things we need to improve on (defending, rebounding) to make us better for two-tough games this week against Mexico and Moberly. We are looking forward to both games and hope to close out the season with two more wins."

Clayton Lang led the scoring attack in the game for Boonville with 18 points along with three steals, two rebounds and one assist.

DeAundre Lewis finished the game with 15 points, eight rebounds, one steal and one assist while Bryce Fuemmeler added 13 points, one rebound, one steal and one assist, Dalton Hodge with five points, one rebound and one assist, Jady Reese with four points, five rebounds and one steal, Alec Viertel with four points and three rebounds, Christian Burns with three points, two rebounds and one steal and Conner Pond with five rebounds.

Page 3 of 3 - For the game, Boonville's JV also hit on 24 of 55 shots from the field for 44 percent and 8 of 13 from the line for 62 percent.

Marshall was led in scoring by Zach Maupin and Joe Shroyer each with 10 points.